Elite & Tawdry ✔ [COMPLETE]

Epilogue

"Happy Birthday, Tawny!"

Confetti and noisemakers were set off as Tawny entered the party room of Westinghouse Manor. There, Maddie, Audrey and even Ally gathered to celebrate their friend turning the sweet sixteen.

Cake was served and memories were shared amongst the girls, as they recapped a tumultuous, eventful year.

"Well, here's to getting through it all in one piece," Maddie proclaimed, raising her fork.

"Here, here!" concurred Ally, and everyone touched their cake-filled forks together in some form of impromptu toast.

"Next semester's not gonna be the same..." Audrey said.

Maddie nudged her girlfriend playfully. "Of course it won't; you're graduating this spring!"

"You know what I mean," Audrey said. "We're gonna miss not having you around, Tawny."

Tawny looked down at her plate, still quite full of cake. The elephant of the room had finally been addressed.

"So it's true then," Maddie said. "You're really leaving Ivoree Gates?"

Tawny nodded. "It's a fact."

"But still, Paris, France," swooned Ally. "If I could up and leave my life, travel anywhere in the world, France would be my number one choice. It's so romantic."

"I dunno," Audrey said. "Arrondissement or no, not sure I'd be too keen to clean dirty diapers for the chance to jetset. It's like trading one maid job for another."

"The term is au pair, love," Maddie corrected.

"The term is koo-koo bananas crazy," fired back Audrey. "I mean, you just got here! You're going to give all this up, give up your scholarship, to kick it with your favourite teach and his pregnant wife in another continent? What's your mother think about all this?"

"She...took it quite well," Tawny replied. "In fact, she encouraged me to make my decision."

"Let's change the subject," Maddie said gently. "Audrey and I are going away for summer vacation as well. We'll be backpacking across Peru and checking out Machu Pichu. Then we're going to visit Kenya and scale Mt. Kilimanjaro."

"Wow," Ally said. "I was just going to visit my grandmother in Tampa."

As the girls continued to chat amongst themselves, Tawny was deep in thought. Unbeknownst to the group, Tawny's mother was residing at Westinghouse Manor at that very moment, at the behest of Bryce.

---

Last week, Faye was moved into the west wing of the manor, where the seldom-used in-house infirmary was located.

Tawny visited her mother once she got settled, and was relieved to see she was doing much better health-wise, and looked nothing at all like the emaciated sector from her dream in weeks past.

"That experimental treatment is like a miracle drug," explained Faye. "I feel like I have the strength of ten men now...I definitely have the same appetite!"

"It's amazing that Mr. Westinghouse is funding all of this," Tawny said. "But...I'm just confused. Why would he go through all this trouble for us?"

Faye sighed and shook her head. "Typical, enigmatic Bryce..."

"What?" asked Tawny.

"Tawny, there's something that I never told you," Faye said. "Just a few months ago, I was convinced I'd have to tell you on my deathbed. But now you especially have a right to know."

Tawny took a seat beside her mother's bed and held Faye's extended hand. "Know what?"

"When I told you your father was dead...that was a lie," Faye confessed.